The Walk With The Tall Pillars
Greenhall Park
Walking With Kids
Continuing the theme of going on shorter walks as we head towards winter, I thought an exploration of Greenhall park was in order. The park itself is located just outside Blantyre, close to Cambuslang and East Kilbride. There is a very small car park, if you can call it that, just inside the entrance. We opted to park outside the park, just at the gates to the park.
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| Map Location |
The Route
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| The Route |
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| Route Elevation |
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| Woodland Walk |
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| Across The River - Part 1 |
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| On The Right Track |
The path from the car park curves down to the river and at the bottom there is a new looking footbridge that takes you to the other side. Now in most occasions, when walking with my kids, I usually carry a child carrier back pack. This time, however I had packed the buggy or stroller if you like (Yes, I know that was a stupid idea). This wasn't a problem at the start, as the track was firm and easy to navigate. After the bridge the track started to narrow, again as with all other walks the foliage here had over grown the path in places. There were some nice views of the river, which was flowing fast, undoubtedly after quite a lot of rain fall over the last few days. At the end of this stretch there was another more basic bridge, without any side supports and beyond that, the condition of the track became much muddier.
The track here ascended a little and as it curved around with the bend in the river the first sight of the mysterious pillars came into view. The pillars are about 20 or 30 m in height and there are about 8-10 of them all in a row. My first thought was that it was an abandoned railway line. The answer came a few days later during a search that it use to be a viaduct, which was dismantled in the late 1940's. We continued on, hoping that the path would loop around the river and back to the car. Once past the pillars the track continued to be mucky, after a half mile we came to a gate and an open field. Thankful for solid ground, we made our way across to the other side where we found another gate and a muddy track. We pushed on, the buggy now folded and the toddler walking (she had wellies) we navigated the mucky path, which became exposed at times, with sharp drops to the river. Eventually we could see the road that we needed to get to cross another bridge, the only problem was that the path was blocked. It looked like in the past someone had blocked the path with a couple of tree trunks. Whether that was to stop dogs or children running straight onto the road, I don't know. Anyway, after a struggle we got over and crossed the bridge. The idea was to walk back along the other side of the river, however we ended up walking up and out of the park to a main road. This wasn't an issue, just not as visually interesting, with houses instead of woods. We managed to walk alongside the road the mile or so back to the other entrance of Greenhall park.
Distance Walked: 3.6km
Time Taken: 1 Hour 27 minutes
Heighest Point 98 m
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| The Basic Bridge |
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| Pillars |
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| Fast Flowing River |
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| Across the Field |
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| Logs in Way |
The track here ascended a little and as it curved around with the bend in the river the first sight of the mysterious pillars came into view. The pillars are about 20 or 30 m in height and there are about 8-10 of them all in a row. My first thought was that it was an abandoned railway line. The answer came a few days later during a search that it use to be a viaduct, which was dismantled in the late 1940's. We continued on, hoping that the path would loop around the river and back to the car. Once past the pillars the track continued to be mucky, after a half mile we came to a gate and an open field. Thankful for solid ground, we made our way across to the other side where we found another gate and a muddy track. We pushed on, the buggy now folded and the toddler walking (she had wellies) we navigated the mucky path, which became exposed at times, with sharp drops to the river. Eventually we could see the road that we needed to get to cross another bridge, the only problem was that the path was blocked. It looked like in the past someone had blocked the path with a couple of tree trunks. Whether that was to stop dogs or children running straight onto the road, I don't know. Anyway, after a struggle we got over and crossed the bridge. The idea was to walk back along the other side of the river, however we ended up walking up and out of the park to a main road. This wasn't an issue, just not as visually interesting, with houses instead of woods. We managed to walk alongside the road the mile or so back to the other entrance of Greenhall park.
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| Across the River - Part 2 |
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| Following Another Track |
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| Back Through the Park |
Distance Walked: 3.6km
Time Taken: 1 Hour 27 minutes
Heighest Point 98 m
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